A protective arrangement of the type in question comprises an input at which a current is supplied to the protective arrangement by a power supply, and an output via which the current can be transferred in the form of an output current to the electrical device to be protected in order to supply said device with power. Here, the protective arrangement comprises a fuse in the power line between the input and the output, which fuse disconnects the power line from the input to the output in order to protect the device against an overload current when a previously set tripping current is exceeded.
DE 20 2004 014 589 U1 discloses an electronic safety switch having a tripping characteristic that can be set which triggers a tripping or cut-out process in the event of increased power consumption. It is described in paragraph 34 of DE 20 2004 014 589 U1 that the desired tripping characteristics can be input and selected using a man-machine interface.
It is often problematic to set the tripping characteristics, in particular the tripping current, to the operationally different supply currents of the electrical devices to be connected. If the set value for the tripping current is too high, a connected device cannot be reliably protected against overloading, since even if the prevailing current significantly exceeds the typical consumed current (rated current) of the connected device, the fuse does not trip.